Joe Pride is not renowned for having two-year-olds up and running in the early-season races so it is a measure of Shalatin’s precocious talent that the colt will line up in the Golden Gift.
Shalatin went to the races for the first time last month, still raw and new off the back of a single trial and after settling towards the tail from an outside draw, he steamed home late to finish an eye-catching fifth to Ojai in the Kirkham Plate (1000m).
The performance backed up what Pride had been seeing at home and gave him the confidence to press on to Saturday’s $1 million Golden Gift (1100m) at Rosehill.
Shalatin is by Shalaa, who has already produced Magic Millions Classic winner Shaquero from his first crop, and is raced in similar interests to Pride’s multiple Group 1 winner Terravista.
He has a laidback attitude, although Pride has seen a shift in the colt’s focus since the experience of his first race start.
“I’m happy to say it hasn’t revved him up, but it has certainly made him a little bit more aware of what’s going on and I think that will help him Saturday,” Pride said.
“He’s a well-bred homebred. His mother is a sister to Arcadia Queen, so there is a bit of depth in his pedigree as well, which is always good with the young horses.
“I think when you look through the pedigrees of two-year-old winners, unlike older horses, they seem to need a pedigree.”
While Pride is best known for his patient development of horses, he has proven equally capable when given a quicker maturing type.
Anatomica finished runner-up in the 2008 Reisling Stakes and was fourth to Sebring in that year’s Golden Slipper, so can Shalatin underline his claims to a start in the world’s richest juvenile race?
“I’ll answer that question after Saturday but that would be the dream,” Pride said.
“I got one in the Slipper there one year with Anatomica and I’ve got to say, I remember the build up to it and being in the parade ring and it is very exciting.
“But you’ve got to have the right horse to do it and he identified himself as that sort of horse pretty early on.”
